Passport to Shreveport: International Cuisine Rules in the 318

by Sydney Blanchard

Growing up in South Louisiana, there are certain assumptions we make about "Northerners." And by Northerners, we are referring to anyone in Louisiana situated too far north of I-10/12. 

The general theory tossed around as I was growing up is that North Louisiana is essentially Yankee territory, with a disturbing lack of Catholics, culture, and alcoholic beverages. 

Not to say this theory is entirely false, but it's not entirely accurate either, as I discovered on our recent trip to Shreveport. 

As it turns out, Shreveport has quite the budding food scene. Alongside great Southern food, there exists an array of international delicacies that one would be remiss to skip. 

Here's a short list of some of the delicious, multicultural cuisine we enjoyed while visiting the Shreve!

Mexican Fare at Ki' Mexico

What began as a successful farmer's market salsa endeavor has since turned into the restaurant concept Ki' Mexico, owned by Rodrigo Mondragon, his brother Elezear and his mother Lido. Ki' Mexico serves up what they've dubbed "Mexican Soul Food." But this isn't your ordinary Mexican fare – their tacos feature cactus and pickled beets!

Vietnamese Dreams at Jimmy's Seafood and Steak

Jimmy's Seafood and Steak, nestled inside the Margaritaville Casino in Shreveport, serves up menu items you'd expect to see at a nice steak restaurant in a casino. What you wouldn't necessarily expect to see on the menu is Chef Frederick Ngo's Vietnamese clay pot fish dish, or braised fish swimming in a sweet and salty sauce that's unlike anything I've ever tasted before. Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau's Public Relations and Social Media Manager Chris Jay put it best: it would be a mistake to order a steak at Jimmy's knowing the clay pot fish is an option.

Chinese-American Perfection at Lucky Palace

Lucky Palace boasts some of the best Chinese-American cuisine in the state. I've previously written all about Lucky Palace on the blog. Trust me, this place is more than meets the eye. 

Dominican Realness at Sabores

Dominican flavor bursts through at Sabores. This small hole-in-the-wall joint offers a variety of bold dishes that highlight the best tastes of the region. Spicy meats, crispy fried plantains and surprising sauces are featured on the menu that might be hard to translate if you're not familiar with Spanish.

Latin American Flavor at El Cabo Verde

Gabriel Balderas is doing something major in Shreveport. Cooking with fresh, organic produce, he brings the flavors of Mexico to pop-up restaurants around the Shreveport-Bossier area. You can taste the difference fresh, local produce makes. Gabriel's tamale is out of this world, and we hear the tacos are pretty outstanding, too.

Tea Buzz at Rhino Coffee 

It turns out there are just as many tea nerds as there are beer nerds! Tea is similar to beer in a number of ways: there are endless varieties from all over the world, the flavors are distinctly different depending on number of factors, and drinking it results in a slight buzz. No kidding! Shreveport's Rhino Coffee offers a wide selection of teas, and even offers a tea program for tasting and learning about teas from all over. 

Jazz Feast: The Food Festival within a Festival

by Blair "B-Rex" Loup

Squeal BBQ's Smoky Bacon Greens and Jazz Fest favorite Fried Green Tomatoes

Though the Jazz Fest line-up changes every year, there are a couple of things that typically remain consistent: the crowds and the food vendors. It’s been a long-running joke that a food vendor has to die before another new vendor gets the chance to dish out grub to hungry music fans.

Blair Loup and her brother Jake at Jazz Fest waiting to see Hozier play.

As it turns out, this year a handful of food vendors chose to retire, bringing a few new bites to the food market. I dragged my older brother Jake to the festival opening day to help me eat…and to see the devastatingly beautiful Hozier play.

We enjoyed some of the classics: fried green tomatoes, cochon de lait po-boy, sweet potato turnover, etc. But the smoky bacon greens from new food vendor Squeal landed at the top of our list.

There are a lot of classic Jazz Fest foods, and while we didn’t get the chance to eat all of them, I finally tried one of the most famous of Jazz Fest bites for the first time. I have been a fest goer for a little over half a decade and had never tried crawfish bread. After one bite, I’d be willing to get a heart tattooed on my shoulder with crawfish bread inscribed at its center. Below are a handful of the foods and beverages I saw and had the pleasure of ingesting:

Rose mint tea at Jazz Fest is one of those things I can't live without. It's herbaceous and sweetened with local honey. It's the bee knees, and if you haven't tried it you need to reevaluate your life choices.

Rose Mint Tea

While fried chicken and jambalaya aren't hard to come by in Louisiana, there are a lot of festival attendees from out of state. While we take it for granted, the food at Jazz Fest is an all new discovery for those who come from all over the country. I saw people chomping down on this crispy fried chicken all day and smiling ear to ear.

Classic Fried Chicken and Jambalaya

The cochon de lait po-boy is a must-have at Jazz Fest. This hefty fellow is packed with succulent pork that's perfect if you're planning on indulging in a few beers or daiquiris between shows...or throughout the day.

Cochon de Lait Po-Boy

Thanks to the festival gods, we find ourselves in the midst of crawfish season during Jazz Fest. There's no smell as tantalizing as a fresh pot of boiled crawfish. It's not a five pound tray of crawfish, but it's enough to get a taste. As previously mentioned, boiled crawfish is a delicacy to all, but curiously pursued by those who travel to the fest... hopefully with elastic in their waistbands. 

Boiled Crawfish

I noticed a man walking by with what looked like the ultimate trio of deliciousness. A crispy fried oyster po-boy accompanied by fluffy, savory crawfish beignets drowned in a cream sauce would be a sin to enjoy even if you stopped there. However, to also wash them down with a sweet blackberry cobbler... I love Louisiana.

From left to right: Fried Oyster Po-Boy, Blackberry Cobbler, and Crawfish Beignets

Squeal BBQ stepped up to the plate to replace a former BBQ vendor at the fest. The line outside their booth seemed constant throughout the day. Hopefully they'll be back next year slinging more of their tasty 'que to fest goers!

BBQ Chicken Sandwich (left) and BBQ Brisket Sandwich (right) from Squeal BBQ

Finally, after 24 years of searching, I found love. I don't know what I expected, but the crawfish bread at Jazz Fest lived up to every bit of hype I've ever heard. A religious experience within itself, crawfish bread is cheesy, spicy, buttery, and all I want until the end of time.

Crawfish Bread

Bite and Booze Bonus: Don't skip on the sweets. Most of the bands I go to see at Jazz Fest perform on the Gentily Stage. Along the way, a small booth laid tucked away from the crowd serving up some of the most delicious Macaroons I've tasted. Also, on your way to the market (heading from the Acura Stage to the Gentily Stage side) stop and grab a sweet potato turnover!

Umami, Ooh My! Beef Brisket - Southern BBQ Sauce Contest

The winning recipe for Brisket in the Southern BBQ Sauce/Matherne's Supermarket/Bite and Booze contest went to Jeremy Wells, author of the blog Faire Les Courses, for a truly unique and equally intriguing creation.  I wasn't sure how this would turn out, but it was certainly worth meeting up with Jeremy on campus to try it out!

Jay Ducote presents a Southern Bar-B-Que Locker to Jeremy Wells

Well, let's get to it.  This is how Jeremy described his Brisket:

"I call this Umami, Ooh My! Beef Brisket. Umami, from the Japanese word for delicious, is savoriness, the fifth basic taste after sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. While sweet tastes often accompany pork and chicken well, beef is better paired with more savory flavors, which is why steaks are paired with red wines. The injection/marinade combines the savoriness of umami with some Asianeque flavors associated with the term's origin.

Two parts fresh pineapple juice
One part soy sauce
One part fresh-brewed green tea
One-half teaspoon Southern BBQ Cajun Seasoning
Dash of cayenne pepper

Pineapple juice, despite being sweet, soy sauce, despite its saltiness, and green tea, despite its mild flavor, actually have high levels of umami flavor. The flavors combine well and aren't overpowering, so inject the mixture liberally throughout the brisket.

The rub combines Southern BBQ's Louisiana Sweet Mesquite rub with another food high in umami: grated Parmesan cheese. About three parts rub to one Parmesan should work. After the whole brisket is liberally coated, smoke it for 1.5-2 hours per pound.

Unlike the other four tastes, umami from different ingredients produces a synergistic effect; in other words, a fifty-fifty mixture of two umami flavors can produce as much as eight times the flavor of either ingredient alone! So grab a beer, play a game of flip cup, and enjoy this "Absolutely Cajun, Positively Delicious" umami experience!"

Jeremy's "Umami" Brisket

Special thanks to Matherne's on Highland at Kenilworth for supplying the meat!

Ninja Snowballs / Bite and Booze FINALS

FINALS:

Submit A Flavor Contest - Finals from Contrast Films on Vimeo.

Find more information about the Ninja Snowballs/Bite and Booze Submit a Flavor Contest HERE.

Ninja Snowballs / Bite and Booze SEMI-FINALS

SEMI-FINALS:

Submit Your Flavor Contest - Semi-finals from Contrast Films on Vimeo.

Find more information about the Ninja Snowballs/Bite and Booze Submit a Flavor Contest HERE.

Cajun Tales... Tall Tales After Dunk Hunting

After a successful duck hunt in South Louisiana, our group realized that we had worked up quite a hunger.  Brent, Brandon, Billy, P, and I took a ride to Cajun Tales Seafood Restaurant in Welsh, Louisiana to fill our empty stomachs with some comfort food.  P seemed to know everyone in the place, and the waitress brought him a tea that was half sweet and half unsweetened mixed together without even having to ask for him.  That was nice.   

Cajun Tales Seafood Restaurant in Welsh, La

I decided that my hunger warrented plenty of grub, and wanting to try an assortment of local fare, I ordered the fried seafood platter which also came with gumbo and salad.  The seafood gumbo had a rich and earthy roux that worked very well with the accompanying shrimp and oysters.  What a great way to start out any meal!  The green salad with honey mustard dressing was about as standard as it gets.  Chopped iceberg lettuce, check.  Honey mustard, check.  Call it a salad, check.  Moving on...

A Bowl of Seafood Gumbo and a Honey Mustard Salad

After I got the formality of the roughage scarfed down, the time came to turn my attention to the fried seafood platter that lurked in the shadows of the table.  The fried catfish, stuffed shrimp, fried oysters, hushpuppies, crab fingers, and sweet potato fries all stared back at me as though they knew their disposal would come in the form of my digestive system.  Oh yes, it was devouring time!

Fried Seafood Platter

All of the food on the plate was wondeful under the cirumstances.  I had an extreme hunger, and everything was certainly very edible.  However, the fried seafood did not blow me away.  I think they could use an upgrade to their badder and a change of cooking oil.  Likewise, the sweet potato fries were nothing that I'd die to go back for.  Of the meal, I thought that the fried catfish was probably the best item.  I still ate all I could and at the end of the meal left full and satisfied.  I suppose that is what really counts!

Things To Do
Lake Charles

The Man's Meal at the Marcantel's

I really love a traditional manly meal.  They take me back to my childhood days of cooking on open fires at hunting camps in south Texas with my father.  Most of my first memories of outdoor cooking, and certainly of grilling, come from those mesquite flames kissing the sizzling slabs of steak while foil-wrapped potatoes baked in the hot, glowing embers below.  Last week I was invited over to the Marcantel's residence where Paul recreated the man's meal and I just hung out and enjoyed the show.  I guess I did pitch in by creating the garlic-cayenne butter sauce for the corn, but we'll get to that later.  Brian and Michael joined in on the feast as well as Michael's newly born son, Levi, and Pam and David Marcantel, Paul's in-laws.

The potatoes were wrapped in foil and baked in the oven at a high temperature, the fresh ears of corn were shucked and placed on the grill, and beautiful slabs of raw beef were brilliantly seasoned by Paul and thrown on the pit to sear until reaching a medium-rare temperature.

Seasoned Steaks

Corn on the Cob and Steaks on the Grill

The corn was allowed to heat on the top rack of the grill for a while and was rotated at key intervals.  Paul likes to get a little bit of char on his corn so that the starches caramelize and the natural sweetness comes out a little more which is a fine way to do it, if you ask me.  When the corn was eventually moved to the bottom to give it a nice scalding, it was also coated with a garlic-cayenne butter sauce that I created out of nothing but butter, cayenne pepper, and garlic salt (credit goes to Courtney Holbrook for the idea).  It was about as simple as it gets, and mighty delicious on an ear of corn!

Man's Meal: Loaded Baked Potato, Garlic-Cayenne Ear of Corn, Medium Rare Rib Eye, and a Cold Glass of Sweet Tea (I had to rest my liver for a day)

The final meal was spectacular.  The loaded baked potato featured butter, sour cream, and cheese with a little salt and pepper.  The garlic-cayenne ear of corn came out perfectly seasoned and extremely flavorful.  It had just right amount kick to make your lips tingle while the sweetness of the caramelized corn kernels danced a tango on the tongue.  The steak was cooked to a perfect temperature with a warm red center that was tender and juicy throughout.  It was the kind of meat that needs no other topping or sauces and should be enjoyed for the flavorful piece of beef that is.  In the end, I left the Marcantel's house full, satisfied, and absolutely delighted to have eaten such a fabulous man's meal that both brought me back to my childhood and made me appreciate the food and friends of today.  Happy Eating!